Treatment of Threatened Abortion

Categories: Obstetrics or Midwifery

The patient should go to bed, lie down
and remain there, and if possible be not only quiet physically, but also

quiet mentally. The main remedy is opium, and if necessary to obtain a

quick action it can be given hypodermically in the form of morphine.

Otherwise, laudanum may be given by the mouth, twenty drops, repeated

cautiously, every three or four hours as required, or it can be given in

thirty-drop doses combined with a couple of ounces of starch water by the

rectum. Extract of opium in pill form, one grain three times a day by the

month; or a suppository of opium, one grain, may be inserted into the

rectum every four to six hours. After the bleeding and pain have ceased,

the emergency is probably passed; but rest in bed and quiet should be the

routine for one or more weeks, and the patient should always rest in bed

at the usual time of the menstrual period, during the remainder of the

pregnancy.